Saturday, November 24, 2012

According to ancient Babylonian legend,
the world began with a god and a goddess who gave birth to several other gods. The
younger gods became disruptive, and their parents soon decided to destroy them. Naturally, the younger deities didn't want to be destroyed, and a cosmic battle began. Eventually Marduk, one of the younger gods and the
chief god of Babylon, defeated his enemies (including the first two deities)
and was installed as king of the gods. This primeval conflict brought the
forces of chaos under control, allowing Marduk and the other gods to form
everything in existence.

Marduk and his fellow deities wanted to
sit back and relax, enjoying their triumph. However, there was still work to be
done. After all, immortals have to eat too. Marduk considered making the losers
of the war do the work as punishment, but it didn’t seem fitting for divine
beings to do menial tasks. So the gods created human beings to do this work and
free up all the gods, winners and losers alike, to relax and enjoy their
unending lives.

I imagine my readers looking disappointed that I'm addressing ancient myths, not the modern variety. But actually, I plan to do both. The Babylonian story says a great deal
about how the Babylonians viewed work, and many people today see it the same way. For example, it suggests:

1. Work is bad. After all, it was beneath the dignity of gods, even the gods who
lost the war, to work. People were created as the gods’ slaves to do things the
things they shouldn’t have to do.

2. Work is the purpose of life. People often look at life’s purpose in terms of what they were
created for. According to the
Babylonians, we were created to work.

3. Work defines our
relationship to the gods. Since the Babylonian gods see
people primarily as workers, it would be logical for humans’ relationship with
them to depend on how well people fulfill their function.

4. Inferior people do inferior
work. This story doesn’t make distinctions between
classes of people, but if the gods pass unpleasant tasks on to inferior beings,
there’s no reason for humans not to do the same. This could lead to oppression
and slavery or to the view that people who do jobs we see as inferior are less
valuable.

Do any of these attitudes look
familiar? They should, because even though the story I drew them from has
passed into obscurity, these ideas are alive and well.

Many people point out similarities
between the Bible and Babylonian myths, but behind any superficial similarities
stand two completely opposed worldviews. In fact, all of the myths about work
that I just listed go directly against the Bible’s teaching. I hope that this
will be the first of a series of posts that address each one of these myths,
along with any others I think of. I don’t know how long it will take me, but I
hope what I write will be helpful as you think about your own job and the role
work plays in your life.

About Me

I'm a Ph.D student at the University of Notre Dame studying Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity. I also have a BA from Brandeis University and an MTS from Notre Dame. After college, I lived in Taiwan and edited an English-teaching magazine. I love traveling and learning languages. I'm also fascinated with philosophy, which was one of my majors in college, and I write poetry, some of which I post on this blog. Most importantly, I am a sincere Christian. I believe that Jesus is God and trust Him to forgive my sins and enable me to live the life I was made to live.